A person of the state of Chu was singing loud in the capital city. At first he sang "Xia li" ,and "Ba ren", thousands of people joined him in sing.

When he came to "A yang" "Jiu lu", there were still several hundreds people who joined in the sing.

Then he sang "Yang chun" "Bai xue", at this time only several dozens of people joined him. When he begun sang those melodious and rising and falling songs, few people could still join in the singing. The more elegant his melody was, the fewer people could join him.

一個楚國人在郢國都里面高聲歌唱，開始他唱的是《下里》《巴人》，郢都城中跟著他唱的有好幾千人。

他唱《阿陽》《薤露》時，跟著唱的也還有幾百人。

隨后他又唱《陽春》《白雪》來，這時能跟著他唱的不超過幾十人。等他開始唱起那些悠揚婉轉、忽高忽低的歌曲時，跟得上的人就剩下不多了。他唱的曲調越來越高雅，能夠跟他一起唱的人越來越少了。